Removing crutches

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Jason94
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Removing crutches

Post by Jason94 »

Perhaps the thing that has me most excited about next season deals with how CJS uses his roster and sets his rotations. I think that CJS really had a number of players that he trusted as they had been through some battles with him and then other players who for whatever reason hadn't earned that trust. I imagine that if he wasn't seeing what he wanted to in practice that they were not going to get PT in games. Certainly QMB was at the top of the list along with Thomas - Stute was there as well.

It took a while for Manjon to gain that trust, even though it was very clear that Manjon was the best PG option the team had. It took Lawrence through the 2nd Bama game to fully gain that trust, as he played fewer than 70% of the available minutes in about half of the games to that point. Dia and Shelby never gained it, and even Robbins didn't seem to have it until after he came back from his first injury (similar to how the main thing that kept Jordan from dominating as a freshman was Dean Smith).

While it is important for coaches to be able to trust players, in this past season it definitely lead to us playing players that weren't particularly talented over more talented players. Perhaps the run doesn't occur if he had consistently started Manjon, Lawrence, Wright, Stute and Robbins. But it is sure that the streak we went on coincided with removing QMB and Thomas from the starting lineup.

Anyway, why I'm so excited about this season is that besides the talent being really upgraded, CJS will not be able to fall back on a QMB or Thomas, and will have to figure out very quickly how to integrate Taylor, Kamateros and Lubin into the rotation. And the alternative is to give playing time to our promising freshmen - win-win IMO. We've largely eliminated any low ceiling but experienced players from the roster and replaced them with either proven production (our transfers) or with another talented freshman class. But mainly the players who I think going in as the trusted group (Manjon, Lawrence, Smith) are all very talented and productive (Manjon and Lawrence) or have high ceilings (Smith). I'm not sure of Lewis' ceiling as a PG, but he appears to be someone who can play, and it seems very unlikely that he would be stealing significant playing time from our best returning players.

In other words, not only is this the most talented roster CJS has had, but also it is the roster that doesn't really have any marginal low ceiling players who can steal PT away from more talented players. Of the players he has brought in who have experience, every one of them looks to be a legit SEC level player who could get at least rotation minutes with most other SEC teams. This is definitely not true of Ansong, QMB or Thomas, and given that he ended up at USC, which was the worst SEC team last season, probably not true of Stute. It is very likely that if the freshmen who do play are playing because they are really good (which has been the case in the past with CJS) that our rotation will feature 8 or 9 players which will be up with most teams in the league.


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geeznotagain
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Re: Removing crutches

Post by geeznotagain »

Jason, I enjoyed reading this post, as I do all of your posts. I do have one quibble, and that is related to the use of the term "trust" as it applied to Robbins. Anyone with eyes (and some without) knew that Robbins was more talented and could better help us win games than QMB. In my mind, the limited minutes were more an issue with a lack of trust in his durability. And those concerns ultimately proved to be valid.
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Re: Removing crutches

Post by Doreknox »

It's absurd not to put your best five players on the floor as much as possible, no matter what trust issues a coach has. It's not like those "trustworthy" players played that well, either.
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Re: Removing crutches

Post by dore74 »

Jason, thanks for all your thoughts. Vandy hoops has had a challenging run, your thoughts have helped us all through it. Hopefully it ends this coming season (the run not your comments).

I get the importance of trust. To me, successful college teams, particularly those without a roster of 5 stars, depend on defense and teamwork on offense. For better or worse Stack trusted the guys he did to deliver this. Moreover, suspecting he worried about the abilities of his trusted guys (and the stamina or potential injuries of some others) he installed that early substitution methodology to mixed results.

Here’s to your thoughts being spot on for the coming season!!
Jason94
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Re: Removing crutches

Post by Jason94 »

geeznotagain wrote: Thu Jun 08, 2023 9:41 am Jason, I enjoyed reading this post, as I do all of your posts. I do have one quibble, and that is related to the use of the term "trust" as it applied to Robbins. Anyone with eyes (and some without) knew that Robbins was more talented and could better help us win games than QMB. In my mind, the limited minutes were more an issue with a lack of trust in his durability. And those concerns ultimately proved to be valid.
I suppose that is possible, but doesn't seem likely - if he was worried about durability, why play him 29 minutes per game following his first injury of the season (not including the Bama game which wasn't competitive), when prior to that he played Robbins just 22 mpg? I would think it would have been the opposite - rode him hard and then been cautious following an injury. Instead he rode him hard almost immediately following his return from injury.
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